Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Lisa, Dad's next door neighbor, brought over a huge pan of apple pan dowdy in the first few days after Mom passed away. We had some other pie, so my sister and I divided the apple pan dowdy into many freezer containers for Dad to enjoy for bedtime snacks. He is still enjoying it many evenings like last night. You can't help singing the song, and it does put you in a happy mood:If you wanna do right by your appetite,If you're fussy about your food,Take a choo-choo today, head New England way,And we'll put you in the happiest mood. with:Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan DowdyMakes your eyes light up,Your tummy say "Howdy."Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan DowdyI never get enough of that wonderful stuff.Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan dowdy makes the sun come outWhen Heavens are cloudy,Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy,I never get enough of that wonderful stuff!Mama! When you bake,Mama! I don't want cake;Mama! For my sakeGo to the oven and make some ever lovin' Sh,Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan DowdyMakes your eyes light up,Your tummy say "Howdy,"Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan DowdyI never get enough of that wonderful stuff!

(words by Sammy Gallop; music by Guy Wood)Best selling records in 1946 by Dinah Shore (Columbia); Stan Kenton and His Orchestra (Capitol); and Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians (Decca).

In the very, very olden days I was an only child. This would be 1955-1958. After that I became the very, very big girl big sister, a title I still hold. (They can't take that away from me!) Both of these roles conveyed certain privileges and responsibilities*. In the beginning, the main privilege was staying up very late, after 8:00 p.m. CST, to watch the "Dinah Shore Chevy Show" on the little black and white t.v., and to eat Skyline Dairy Swiss Almond ice cream with my parents. Ms. Shore used to end her show by singing, "See the USA in your Chevrolet", swirling about in her Barbie fashion dress, and then tossing me a big kiss. Our car was a Chevrolet, a pea-green 1954 to be exact, and even if we weren't seeing much of the USA in those days, I knew this t.v. show was being sent directly to me in the egocentric way a preschooler understands the world. The "Dinah Shore Show" went off the air in 1963, about the time Roberts Dairy purchased Skyline Dairy. After that the ice cream just wasn't as good. President Kennedy was assassinated, and then the Great Alaskan Good Friday Earthquake of 1964 changed my world view. Television wasn't about me. It was about "stuff out there" as reported by Walter Cronkite.

*If you can remember the gravity with which Bert Parks explained the responsibility of the Miss America runner-up to take over if Miss America should be unable to fulfill her duties, you will understand that I seriously believed from age three that I might have to take charge should my parents be unable to complete their duties as parents for my younger siblings.

They Can't Take That Away From Me(Written by George and Ira Gershwin)

There are many many crazy thingsThat will keep me loving youAnd with your permissionMay I list a fewThe way you wear your hatThe way you sip your teaThe memory of all thatNo they can’t take that away from meThe way your smile just beamsThe way you sing off keyThe way you haunt my dreamsNo they can’t take that away from meWe may never never meet again, on that bumpy road to loveBut I’ll always, always keep the memory ofThe way you hold your knifeThe way we danced till threeThe way you changed my lifeNo they can’t take that away from me

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AnchorWoman is the daughter who anchors, securing her dad, providing a rock. Sometimes together they haul up a slimy, salty chain of memories. AnchorWoman is not the good hair tv news personality smiling until the commercial break.